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Xiahong Feng

Professor of Earth Sciences

Frederick Hall Professor of Mineralogy and Geology

The main feature of my research is the interdisciplinary approach to global and local environmental problems. I use major and trace element concentrations and variations of stable isotopic ratios of oxygen, hydrogen, carbon and nitrogen in natural materials, such as rocks, water, tree-rings, soils and air, to study the function and dynamics of natural systems, to trace the history of the climatic and environmental changes and to understand the mechanisms for such changes. Recent projects include solute and contaminant transport in watersheds or in snow and their effects on stream chemistry, rates and mechanisms of plant and soil organic matter decomposition and the implications to the global carbon cycle, and reconstruction of paleohumidity using oxygen and hydrogen isotopic compositions of tree rings.